Advice On Calculating How Many Rolls Of Wallpaper To Buy

With wallpaper costing anything up to £50 a roll, calculating how much you need to buy before you go out and shop for it could save you an awful lot of money not to mention time, if you buy too little and then need to go back for more you could be in even bigger trouble. Follow my simple formula and work out exactly how much wallpaper you need for the job.

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Below you will find a chart to hep you work out how much wallpaper you will need to buy to complete your decorating project.

The chart is set out for wallpaper that has '0' or straight match or a random pattern. This means that you can 'butt' up the paper at any point.

This type of paper is the most efficient to hang as there is very little waste.

When choosing wallpaper:

If you choose to hang a wallpaper that has a repeating pattern then you will need to allow for wastage from the roll in order to hang matched lengths of paper (see diagramme).

If you are hanging wallpaper in a room with a number of recesses, arches & window recesses, you will need to allow for a certain amount of wallpaper wastage also.

I suggest that if you have either scenario, you assume that you will get one 'drop' less from each roll of paper.

A drop is the length of wallpaper from ceiling to floor.

This factor can have quite an impact on the cost of papering a room.

I would always recommend that you purchase 1 or 2 extra rolls of paper so that you are not left short.

The last thing you want is to return to the shop and find that they only sell stock from a different batch, you may notice the difference in colour, or worse they have stopped stocking it all together.

Should you need to use rolls of paper with a different batch number, try and start the new batch at a corner point. This way the change in light hitting the wall will help to hide any differences in batch quality.

Standard rolls of wallpaper are approx 10m long
How Many Rolls For The Walls
	Distance around the room including doors & windows
Wall height	10m - 33 ft	12 m- 39 ft	14 m- 46 ft	16 m- 52 ft	18 m- 59 ft	20 m- 66 ft	22 m - 72 ft	24 m - 79 ft
2 -2.3m 7" - 7'6"	5	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
2.3-2.4 7'6" - 8"	5	6	7	8	9	10	10	11
2.4-2.6 8" - 8"6'	5	6	7	9	10	11	12	13
2.6-2.7 8"6 '- 9"	5	6	7	9	10	11	12	13
2.7-2.9 9' - 9"6'	6	7	8	9	10	12	12	14

How Many Rolls For A Ceiling
	Distance around the room including doors & windows

mtrs	9 -12	13-15	17-18	20-21	22-24	26 -27	29 -30
feet	30-40	42-50	55-60	65-70	75-80	85-90	95-100
rolls	2	3	4	6	7	9	10

Useful Resources

Wallpaper Direct - great website for choosing quality wallpapers - get free samples - good help guides on how to paper a room - www.wallpaperdirect.co.uk

Wallcoverings Direct - Another great website for wallpaper - free samples
www.wallcoveringsdirect.co.uk

USA Wallpaper - American wallpaper site with fantastic range of papers
www.usawallpaper.com

Seabrook Wallpaper - good sight with paper calculating table - good advice and picture gallery. www.seabrookwallpaper.com

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